Sick of NURSES who say they HATE NURSING!! Another Vent

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OKK.. I am a new grad, who is still searching for a job ( 1 1/2 months), as are many others right now, I am just so sick of hearing nurses who HAVE JOBS talk about how they HATE nursing, how is this fair?? I understand having days that are frustrating, but not nurses who openly talk about how they HATE their jobs...SO QUIT ALREADY so that those of us who actually would like to work can have a job!! Alot of nurses say ..."just wait you'll see what we're saying", but I worked as a pca/cna for 3 years and @ times frustrating (yes...2 pca's on a large unit w/ total care patients is no cake walk either) but overall I still liked my job...I can only hope that one day IF I ever reach the point where I feel like I hate my job (esp. since being a nurse does involves CARING) that I will have the courage and care enough for my patients to leave!

I agree with many people about burnout. I also wish sometimes that the miserable nurses, who really need their jobs and are intent on keeping them because they have bills to pay, would give it a rest, because the op isn't the only one tired of listening to it from you day after day after day after day.

I've found myself in some unacceptable situations in my nursing careers and I've had to change. But I didn't drag everyone else around me down with any negativity.

Venting from burnout is one thing...I've been there and done that. But some people need to just bite the bullet and carry on if staying in nursing is the only option for them.

Tweety, you have 18 years of experience, I think you have an awesome attitude!

Here's just one example of where I am coming from, a new graduate shows up for her first day of work the, unit manager goes on the floor and finds someone to place the new graduate with, goes up to the nurse introduces the new graduate to her new preceptor (who obviously had no clue that she was going to be training her that day) and says "this is Adrianna a new graduate im going to put her with you today " the nurse who is going to train her then says "WHO ME...NO YOU AINT" ( although she acts like its a joke to the unit manager ...she was serious) because when the unit manager left the nurse walks to the back w/ several other nurses and says what the **** is she thinking putting that girl w/ me, is she crazy, shes lost her mind...either she got to go or I do one" my friend thought about going to the unit manager because she didnt want to be placed with anyone she felt intimidated to learn with and she also didnt want to be a burden to anyone...but she knew how hard it was to actually find a job and didnt want to be seen as a complainer either...so she decided to ignore it (even though she was in tears and was nervous even before she got there) so she walks up to the nurse and she said COME ON, lets get report...on the way to find the nurse reporting off she said LORD, I dont wanna be here, I cant stand this place. So I'll spare you everything that went on that day...but heres the part that really gets me....the nurse left her on her own to care for the patients and she was saying that she didnt want to bother her too much she only asked her to do one thing ( turn a patient) because it was a pt she couldnt turn herself...she said that even getting her to do that was like pulling teeth, when they get in the room the nurse makes the comment " he too big, im ready for him to go...he's killin me, I cant be breaking my back" when they turned him...he had gone to the bathroom...she told my friend oh dont worry about him he does that all day ...my friend said "well I think Im just gonna change him anyway...Im caught up anyways" The nurse says well do what you wanna do then, thats on you...im not gonna keep coming in here changin that man, and you're gonna have to find somebody else to help you he's too big for me to keep coming here pullin on...so my friend decides to do it herself and when she walks back up to the desk the nurse it sitting up there on her cellphone.

This is just one example. Both in my experience working as a cna/pca and during my clinicals I am seeing more and more of this...when I heard my friend tell me about her day it just made me sick to know that there are people out there like this who have jobs and could care less and then there are those of us who would love to have a job. Not to say that some days I may not feel the same as the nurse (hopefully not) but I sure hope that I can control myself better than that.

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OK, I love being a nurse!

Been one for over 9 yrs. Yes, the job has MANY frustrating distractions that make my job very difficult to enjoy A LOT of the time... Paperwork, phone calls, difficult patients/family, finding IV pumps, working short staffed, etc. But I actually DO like working in general chaos! I like juggling a million things at the same time and using my critical thinking skills! It's what I'm good at.

However... One of the toughest things I have to cope with at work is the negativity of other nurses. B...'ing and moaning about how they hate their jobs. It's hard enough staying positive without others pulling you down! Everyone needs to vent at times about how tough this job is. But at the end of it, I think you can't let it bring down the mood of the whole team. You have to keep a sense of humor and make the best of it!

Don't loose your sense of optimism and good luck in your job search!

Thank you, Im glad that there are nurses out there that new graduates CAN look up to!

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Specializes in MICU, neuro, orthotrauma.

I tend to believe that in the end very few of us hate "the patient", but are more frustrated in our limitations to help the patient.

Oh, this x 1000. It will be why I leave nursing. I feel so helpless sometimes in the critical care environment with family doctors giving me orders that are utterly USELESS and refusing to hand over the reins to either hospitalist or the intensivists. I have literally watched patients die before me related to this single issue. And when they don't die right away, their outcomes are quite poor. It. breaks. my. heart.

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I don't think anyone in any profession always loves their job. I do think it helps to vent, especially to people who understand.

I like what I do. I like taking care of people and having to use my brain to think things through.

There are some things about nursing I don't like, but that would be true in any profession.

I was one of the nurses talking about being burned out, but that comes and goes. I've been doing this for 23 years and don't think I could if I didn't mostly like what I do.

There are days I hate my job, but I think that's true of anyone.

We need nurses and I don't mean to discourage anyone. It is hard work and not everyone can do it. Some nurses make it a few years and some a lifetime. I'm sure I'll retire from nursing when the time comes. I don't think I want to do something else.

So forgive me if I complain and on some days say I hate my job. I think that's just a fact of life.

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How can you be sick of nurses who are displeased with their job and haven't spent one day doing what they do?

I'm sorry to tell you but nursing burnout is real, the stress from some jobs is palpable, and sometimes shows up in a person's life in real ways, such as declining health and bad eating habits, strained family life, and other personal ways. Why do you think there's such turnover in this field? Why were there so many open vacancies for staff RNs just 3 short years ago (and still would be open had it not be for the worst economic decline in 25 years)? Hate is a very strong word that I wouldn't use, but walk a day in some nurses shoes before you complain about their complaining.

I'm suprised you dont know the true underlying reason for such a high turnover rate.The reason is very simple...the nursing students are trained wrong so when they start their first nursing job they experience reality shock~!I'm sure you know that on average the senior nursing student handles about 2-3 patients as oppose to a new grad nurse who handles 5 or 6.Back in a day the junior and senior nursing student had to run the entire floor and they were expected to do majority of the nursing tasks under the supervision of nurses.So now you should understand the turn over rate and stop blaming the system but maybe nursing school system!

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Specializes in Operating Room Nursing.

To the OP: I really hope you don't ever experience job burnout. It can be so debilitating to go to work everyday and feel no passion in what your doing and dread coming in the next day. I'm at the point now where I can feel myself getting a little burned out, does this mean I should just leave the nursing profession because a new grad needs a job? There are times when I can honestly say that I HATE some aspects of nursing.

I understand what your saying about people who are constantly complaining, never happy at all and have behavioural issues that impact on other staff, patients etc, but there is a world of difference between this and nurses who are burned out and simply have had enough of nursing and need time off.

IMHO Nurses in my position who know they are approaching burnout need to be proactive and do something about it such as taking annual leave as soon as they can, seek counselling, even let management know what's going on. I have learned that if I don't take regular leave (I have 4 weeks a year) then I'll end up burned out and will dread coming into work. At the moment we have high levels of burn out because the government has decided all of a sudden that nurses with large amounts of accumulated annual leave need to take it within the next two years, so they are getting priority over everyone else, so of course we can't take our leave and are getting burned out.

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Balancing the demands of the patients and the families :confused: Usually the patients are great its the families that I dread. I feel after only 4 years i am feeling burnout, but I always treat the patient properly. try to provide safe effective care but with the tools that I am handed it seems like an uphill battle. I do love being a nurse but some days were treated like glorified waitresses. Nothing wrong with waitressess did it many years but,,, It is a hard job can be very rewarding

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Specializes in Peds.

I'm one of those people who, most days, I don't enjoy my job. I don't quit because I can't afford to. This is NOT my "dream" job, but I have to survive- I need to earn a living. Nursing school/ Clinicals does NOT prepare you for the real world. Good luck finding a job.

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I'm suprised you dont know the true underlying reason for such a high turnover rate.The reason is very simple...the nursing students are trained wrong so when they start their first nursing job they experience reality shock~!I'm sure you know that on average the senior nursing student handles about 2-3 patients as oppose to a new grad nurse who handles 5 or 6.Back in a day the junior and senior nursing student had to run the entire floor and they were expected to do majority of the nursing tasks under the supervision of nurses.So now you should understand the turn over rate and stop blaming the system but maybe nursing school system!

So you're saying that the high turnover rate is due to the education of nurses? The education of nurses has no bearing on the situation dealing with staffing issues, too-sick-for-the-floor patients, and other institutionalized conondrums the post-grad RN faces. Educators have no control over what their graduates face after school. They can prepare them as best as they can, but to teach them shortcuts they have know to survive is showing them how to do a job, not to think as a nurse.

The research on the high turnover and stress in the field is well documented. The nurse faces a multitude of obstacles to care for a patient, most of which are brought upon by the hospital itself. It can be an "against all odds" profession. I have nothing by empathy for the ones that need to vent.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I think there's a couple things going on here...

1) You are right that in this field there seems to be a substantially higher amount of people "complaining" about their work. I think, however, instead of telling all these people to get out, the productive approach would be to thoughtfully question... why?

There's got to be a reason right? I'm sure you don't think the field of nursing acts as a magnet for chronic complainers. And I hope you're not thinking it's all because they chose the wrong field for them? I mean I'm sure like all fields, that's true for some. But let's be logical about this... neither one of these can really be the driving force behind it.

Which really brings us to 2) the reason you're not quite able to figure out the answer to that question... the honest answer, as much as it pains you to hear it, is that you haven't worked as an RN yet. Consequently it seems you're resorting to the blanket concept that all these people are either chronic complainers or were just dumb enough to choose the wrong field. Which then means the only right thing to do for the sake of all new grads and our blessed patients is kick the complainers out.

How about asking why? Because they are obviously and legitimately trying to tell everyone something. You claim to care about the patients well-being, and I'm sure it's true, so really listen to what's going on behind the "nurses who hate their jobs" rant. What are they saying? In short, it's that patients are not as safe and well cared for as they should be in the present environment. And that the nursing staff is not as safe and well cared and respected and supported as THEY should be.

Your job as a CNA and your clinicals as a student introduced you to the fast paced world of patient care. But it did little to orient you to the overwhelming responsibility for a person's very life that an RN holds in her hands every day. When you have that kind of responsibility without the time and resources to meet it to the best of your ability it can become impossible at times to go home feeling good about your day. You have a lot of those days in a row and you start to burn out. When burn out progresses you find yourself not always wanting to go to work. When you no longer want to go to work you cease to be as happy outside of work. And finally, when the situation continues month after month or year after year, your whole life begins to lose its color and you begin to say things like, "Oh my gosh I think I hate my job." A few more months or years later and you no longer start the sentence with I think...

What that nurse and others like her need is for people to sit up, take notice, and listen. There's something going on here. And I can guarantee you it will never be fixed by rounding up all the "complainers" and filling the positions with those who don't have a clue... but think they've stumbled upon the easy fix. Talk about a bandaid for a femoral bleed.

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Most nurses that I know that 'hate nursing' don't actually hate taking care of patients. What they hate is administration, politics, and all of the paperwork and regulations that keep nurses away from doing what they actually hoped to do with their lives - interact with and take care of patients. I didn't understand this before I became a nurse, but taking care of patients is actually a very small part of what we do everyday. There is lots of work to be done that has nothing to do with being with the patient. I think that is what irritates many nurses.

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Most nurses that I know that 'hate nursing' don't actually hate taking care of patients. What they hate is administration, politics, and all of the paperwork and regulations that keep nurses away from doing what they actually hoped to do with their lives - interact with and take care of patients. I didn't understand this before I became a nurse, but taking care of patients is actually a very small part of what we do everyday. There is lots of work to be done that has nothing to do with being with the patient. I think that is what irritates many nurses.

I can totally see your side.

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